Crossing lines (Noah and Aiden) novel Chapter 256

Aiden had finally learned what it meant to love—just not me.

No, I’m not the villain in this story. I’m simply the one who lingered too long in a memory that should have been left behind.

Maybe that makes me foolish. Or selfish. Or tragically stuck in the past.

I swear, I never imagined how much turmoil would follow me like a shadow, invading the quiet corners of my life.

And yes, I was stubborn.

Self-absorbed.

Desperate.

I could be dramatic enough to fill an entire theater with my emotions.

But the way I loved Aiden? That wasn’t an act.

When I stepped back into his world, I thought I was reclaiming a piece of myself that had been lost. I believed maybe there was still something left for me there. I didn’t realize I was shattering the life he had built while I was gone. And I regretted it—not as the submissive boy who once found safety at his feet, but as the man who had loved him long before either of us understood what love was meant to be.

If I had never returned, none of this would have unfolded. He wouldn’t have been broken. Noah wouldn’t have been crumbling in the middle of his season. Their future wouldn’t be unraveling just because I walked into the wrong place at the wrong moment.

In my defense, I honestly didn’t believe Aiden loved him.

I mean—Noah. A football player. A walking ego with impulses like an untrained puppy. A brat, if I ever saw one. (Yeah, I knew the irony all too well.)

But then I saw it—not the way Aiden looked at him, but the way Aiden softened in his presence. Like a suit of armor finally coming off. Like he had been holding his breath for years, and Noah was the first person he’d ever truly exhaled with.

When I grasped what I’d stepped into—that I wasn’t just haunting an old life, but standing smack in the middle of someone else’s love story—everything inside me twisted painfully. I wanted to hate Noah. I really did. God, I tried. But how do you hate someone who loves him the same way you did? How do you resent the person who finally gave him what you couldn’t?

People say if you love someone, you should let them go. I used to think that was just a cliché—something people say to make heartbreak sound poetic instead of devastating. But it’s true. Hold on too tightly, and love slips right through your fingers. I held on too tightly once, and I destroyed everything. I wasn’t about to make that mistake again. Not with him. Not with Noah. Not with myself.

I parked.

Sat there a moment, my hands gripping the steering wheel, because stepping out of the car would make everything real.

Finding Noah Blake’s dorm wasn’t difficult. Everyone knew where he lived. He was practically campus legend by now. But standing outside his door? That was something else entirely.

The hallway felt too still. Like it was holding its breath. Like it knew the moment I knocked would change everything once again.

My hand hovered over the door. Knocking should have been easy, but it wasn’t. Not because I feared what he’d say, but because I knew exactly what I needed to say.

Then I knocked. Firm. Steady.

Because if I loved Aiden at all, this was the moment I had to prove it.